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President Xi Jinping of China is threatening the legacy of Deng Xiaoping: Power Concentration

President Xi Jinping of China is threatening the legacy of Deng Xiaoping: Power Concentration

Kanako Itamae and Lee Jay Walker

Modern Tokyo Times

Deng Xiaoping radically altered China from a tainted one-party-state based on power concentration under an all-encompassing leader, into a party that focused on the path of modernization and furthering the wealth of ordinary Chinese people. After all, the convulsions of the Cultural Revolution was detrimental to the people of China based on enormous pain and suffering. In other words, the world of Mao Zedong must never threaten the path of modern China, nor must people become downtrodden based on the political whims of an all-encompassing ruler who dictates to the masses. However, the current leader of China, President Xi Jinping, is threatening the political curtails enshrined by Deng.

Hence, it is essential that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) focuses on the logic of Deng. If not, then Xi will usurp the status quo set down by Deng based on his power concentration policies. Therefore, the CCP should not rubber-stamp the whims of Xi because China’s modernization will be threatened by power concentration being in the hands of a long-lasting leader.

Deng believed in term limits and grooming the next leader of China based on the need to prevent another Mao emerging. Equally, Deng feared that an all-encompassing leader would threaten the rights of ordinary citizens. Hence, while Deng crushed the events of Tiananmen Square, this was based on his belief that the CCP was the only functionary political system that could pull Chinese nationals out of poverty. Also, Deng feared China splintering based on internal political dissent and the meddling of outside forces that sought to weaken China.

The BBC reports, “China’s governing Communist Party has proposed removing a clause in the constitution which limits presidencies to two five-year terms.”

Joshua Wong, a pro-democracy supporter who hails from Hong Kong, said, “the era of Emperor Xi” is on its way.

It is extremely worrying that China will be hindered of further liberalization in the social sphere. At the same time, the reputation of China will suffer if an all-encompassing leader imposes his thoughts and ideology on the people of this nation. Equally, if Xi usurps the CCP by focusing on power concentration, then religious rights will be further curtailed and any signs of political dissent will be crushed to a much higher degree.

The Guardian reports, “The growing supremacy of Xi, 64, who took power in late 2012, was underlined in a second Xinhua report that announced a body of political philosophy bearing his name, Xi Jinping Thought, would also be written into China’s constitution. The philosophy was added to the Communist party’s charter last October, a move experts said effectively anointed Xi as China’s most powerful leader since Mao, who ruled between 1949 and his death in 1976.”

If Xi does decide to cling to power and push through endless power concentration policies, then the people of China will rue the erosion of greater liberalization that Deng ushered in. Therefore, the CCP should think carefully before rubber-stamping the desires of Xi because power concentration under a single individual bodes ill for the people of China.